This Patriots' field goal shows Bill Belichick's relentlessness

With a running clock, the New England Patriots had 15 seconds to get their offensive unit off the field, and get the field goal unit on the field to make a 28-yard field goal.

At the end of the second quarter against the New Orleans Saints in Week 2, Tom Brady rushed on a third and 9 with less than 30 seconds left in the half. By the time Brady hit the turf, the game clock read about 16 seconds. The Patriots had no timeouts, so Brady popped up and immediately signaled for offensive players to get off the field for the field goal unit.

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He does indeed — ad nauseam. Goskowski says they’ve practiced it “hundreds and hundreds of times.”

“We’ve been practicing that probably once a week ever since I’ve been here,” Gostkowski said Monday. “It was nice to actually run it because you run it in practice all the time, and you’re like, ‘Ah, this is never going happen.’ And I used to say that jokingly. But it’s one of those things you’re glad that you did practice it because when you get in that situation, everything’s hurried up. You know that you’ve done it before, and you can do it without freaking out when the circumstances change.

“It’s one of those things where the offense and the special teams have to be on the same page.”

Gostkowski explained some of the difficulties of the play. He said the play felt much faster in a game setting than it does in practice. He also said there wasn’t enough time for him to take his proper steps, which helps him measure the correct run-up to the holder. He eye-balled it. The referees also don’t have enough time to replace the game ball with a k-ball, a ball specifically for special teams. Gostkowski was forced to kick with the Patriots’ game ball.

“Even though it was a short field goal, it’s one of those plays that will stick out compared to a normal kick,” Gostkowski said. “I’m just glad that we did it successfully after the hundreds of hundreds of times we’ve practice that.”

The field goal helped the Patriots sneak points in before the half, and take a 30-13 lead over the Saints. The margin of victory in the final score was large in favor of the Patriots, but the importance of three points can be paramount.

Belichick squeezed the Saints for every point he could in that first half.